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View Poll Results: How likely do you think a Pacers/Lakers trade involving JO will happen this season?

Re: 11/20/2007 Game Thread 11: Pacers vs Lakers

There are reasons for holding back young guys in certain situations, even if it's on a bad team. In fact, often you WANT to hold a young guy back a little on a bad team.

I'll explain later outside a game thread, but guys like Shareef Abdur Rahim and Damon Stoudamire are examples of guys who might have turned out better had they been developed properly and not just given all sorts of freedom, minutes and touches on a bad team.

Re: 11/20/2007 Game Thread 11: Pacers vs Lakers

He might be just a little too talented to be screwed, but in general you don't want young guys developing bad habits while putting up big numbers in losing efforts. They don't really learn on those types of situations.

They lose, but since said young guy put up 20 points, said young guy will shrug it off and say "eh, it's not my fault. I put up my 20."

That's what happened to Damon Stoudamire. He pretty much chucked the playbook after he scored big on a bad team and won rookie of the year. The next year, they lose, but it ain't Damon's fault. He's ROY. So he kept doing his thing. He didn't learn anything. Didn't improve. Didn't expand his game.

Similar thing happened to SAR. He was the man in Vancouver. They needed him to score, so they kept him in the game despite the fact that he was a crappy defender. They couldn't pull him off the floor to teach him a lesson because they needed him in the game. The result? He never learned defense because nobody ever made him play it. He never expanded his game and was basically the same player at 25 as he was at 19.